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Lately I have been working with people who are either becoming interested in Magic the Gathering or looking to improve their skills and knowledge of the game. Magic as a whole is a very overwhelming concept. If you try to explain the entire game at one time, you can easily loose focus on the general concepts or get so deep into the analysis that you confuse the person you are trying expose to the game. Looking into the vast number of published materials on the web, I have found that there is a lack of general information on the game as a whole. This article is my attempt to put an overall perspective on each block. In that perspective I will look at the mechanics that each block introduced, key cards that either pushed the mechanic or defined the block and what they brought to the game as a whole. The article is written on the basis that the reader understands the basic concepts of the game such as lands, creatures, the difference between instants and sorceries etc. (I started writing with the intention of introducing a new player to the game, but to cover from the start to the concepts of each block was too daunting of a task in one article). Please do not get discouraged by the length of this article, I tried to be concise but wanted to expose an immense amount of information at the same time.

The first step in this process is going to be defining the terms that are used in Magic.

First off there are base sets in Magic. These base sets typically contain less advanced cards and are produced to augment the blocks of cards that are released. This was not true in the original base sets of Alpha, Beta and Unlimited, but became more evident as the game progressed from its origin. Base sets include Fourth, Fifth, Sixth (Classic), Seventh and Eighth (Core) Editions. Since this article is designed for the new or less experienced players, I am going to avoid the concepts of the power cards in Alpha, Beta and Unlimited.

A block in Magic is defined by three sets. The first set consists of a large card pool and is augmented by two smaller expansions that follow.

A mechanic is a concept of the game. Each block tends to use a particular set of mechanics. Most times the mechanic will be pushed in the block and then used at a limited or non existent manner in future blocks.

Ice Age Block: Consists of Ice Age, Homelands and Alliances

Ice Age brought the mechanic of upkeep costs. With a permanent in play there was a cost associated with keeping it in play. A classic example of this is Illusions of Grandeur

, an enchantment that stated when it comes into play you gain 20 life and when it leaves play you loose 20 life. It has a cumulative upkeep cost of 2 mana, meaning that for each upkeep you have to pay 2 plus the number of turns it is in play (first upkeep 2, second upkeep 4 and so on). This card became the basis of a combo deck as with the card Donate

you could give control of the enchantment to you opponent, thus you gaining the life and your opponent loosing the life if the upkeep cost was not paid.

Ice Age brought us allied color pain lands (pain lands are land cards that can produce colorless mana, or with the cost of 1 life can produce mana of two different types) that set up the replacement of the original dual lands.

Ice Age also brought us the mechanic of alternate casting cost spells. Force of Will

The Tempest block introduced us to a new evasion of shadow. Shadow creatures can only be blocked by other creatures with shadow (similar to the evasion of flying). White gained aggressive creatures with shadow in Soltari Monk

is a staple card from this block that is a two casting cost enchantment that states during a player's upkeep, if they have fewer creatures than the opponent that they turn over cards from the library until they get to a creature card and then put it into play. Add Gaea’s Blessing

A new creature type was introduced in this block in the form of Slivers. Slivers are creatures in all colors (and some gold or multicolor). Slivers add an ability to all Slivers that are in play, for example Horned Sliver

This block introduced us to “free spells”. These free spells have us pay the casting cost of the spell and then untap a number of lands as a result of the spell resolving. Cards that demonstrate this are Rewind

is aggressively costed with its ability to deal damage and to regenerate. With this is has the drawback of forcing you to discard a card from your hand during your upkeep (which is prior to your draw phase). If you did not discard a card from your hand, you had to put Masticore

This block also gave us color specific lands that could become creatures at a cost of mana. Each color had a land that became a creature with the attributes of the color. For example, the green land has trample, and the blue land has flying.

Cycling is another mechanic that was introduced in this block. Cycling is a mechanic that allows you to pay a cost (typically two colorless mana in this block) and discard the card from your hand and draw a card from your library. This is a concept that allowed you to play with extra land cards to insure that you could play a land each turn, but if you drew too many you can cycle specific ones to draw other cards. This mechanic also allowed you to have situational cards in your deck that may not be useful against every opponent. If the card was not applicable in your matchup, you can discard card it and draw another card.

Echo is another mechanic that was introduced to the game. Echo makes you pay for a spell twice. Therefore you get to play the spell and on your next turn pay for it again. Pouncing Jaguar

is an example of this as it is a 2/2 creature that costs 1 green mana to play. This allowed play of aggressively priced spells but had the draw back of having to pay for the spell over the course of two turns. Some of the creatures in this block had come into play abilities (i.e. Avalanche

becomes both a great creature to be aggressive and defensive with (and with the ability to untap itself, can be both on the same set of turns). With all the powerful cards, many became restricted or banned as they are magnitudes better than other cards in Magic. Examples of this are Mind over Matter, Memory Jar

parallel cards were introduced in this block that allowed players to get unique cards and make their decks special. This concept has stayed in the game since this block and even continues in the base sets starting with 7th Edition.

’s Block, Wizards of the Coast took a stance that they did not want another block produced that had as many powerful cards as the last set. They had to go thru multiple banning and restriction of cards in multiple formats and did not want to repeat this. With that the block of Masque’s slowed the pace of the game down and had very few overpowered cards. The block does have standout cards that are very powerful, but not in the numbers that are present in the Urza

This block introduced us to the new concept of Fading. Fading has a permanent come into play with a set number of counters on the card. During your upkeep phase you must remove a fading counter from the card. If you can not remove a fading counter from the card, then the card is put into your graveyard. Blastoderm

is a 5 power 5 toughness creature that can not be the target of spells or abilities. This creature was very economically costed at 2 colorless and 2 green mana. With this you accelerated a large creature into play, but only had the creature in play for a set number of turns. Parallax Wave

are both enchantments that have fading. Each of these enchantments allows you to remove a fading counter to remove a permanent from the game (Tide could remove lands and Wave creatures). The permanent was only removed from the game until the enchantment left play.

Alternate casting cost was another mechanic in this block. This concept allowed a player to cast a spell with a casting cost other than tapping lands for mana. This concept is shown in cards like Daze

Creature type mattered a great deal in this set. There are specific creatures that can be activated (as a cost of tapping the creature and paying the activation cost) and search for another creature and put it into play. Green has the search creature of Skyshroud Poacher

that allows you to search for Elves. The white creatures in the block had the most use of this ability in the form of the Creature Type of Rebels. Rebels have a chain of searchers in the aspect of on your first turn you can play Ramosian Sergeant

, on your second turn you can tap the Sergeant and pay two and search for a Rebel card that has a casting cost of two or less. There are two casting cost Rebels that search your library for Rebel that costs three or less (Defiant Falcon

The first major difference in this block compared to the previous sets is the fact that gold cards (cards that have casting costs that include two or more colors) were brought back to Magic. With this allied colors in the wheel got less powerful dual lands. These lands come into play tapped but they also have the ability to produce two different colors of mana. The two differences between these lands and the “dual lands” printed in Alpha, Beta and Unlimited are that they do not count as the two land types (thus some of the land search cards and the “walk” abilities of creatures do not apply) and that they come into play tapped. With the multi color setup of this block and new set of creatures were introduced that reduced the casting cost of color specific cards. For example, the black creature (Nightscape Familiar

) allows both red and blue spells to cost one less colorless mana to cast a spell (color specific mana could not be reduced, only the colorless portion of the spell). The final set of the block introduced gold cards for non allied colors in the wheel. With this, another set of pain lands, was introduced that allowed colors not supported by the base set. New color combinations include Blue/Green, Blue/Red, White/Red, Green/Black, and White/Black. The allied color pain lands were first introduced in the Ice Age block and reprinted in the base sets until 8th Edition.

With the multicolor nature of this block, there is a set of cards that reward you for playing multiple colors. Evasive Action

is an example of this as it is a counterspell that forces an opponent to pay one mana for each land type you control to stop the counterspell from resolving.

Gating is a mechanic that was introduced in this block. Gating is a triggered ability for creatures in the set. Gating creatures come into play and force you to return a creature to your hand as a result of playing the card. If there is no creature in play to target, the creature targets itself to return to your hand. Shivan Wurm

is an example of a gating creature. The mana cost for the 7/7 trample creature is set low, but the draw back is that you must return a red or green creature to your hand as a result of it coming into play.

Another mechanic that was introduced in this block is the concept of kicker. A spell with kicker has a normal casting cost and then an additional kicker cost. With this you can play the spell for its normal casting cost and ignore the kicker ability or you can pay the normal casting cost and add the kicker cost for the extra ability. Urza

’s Rage is an example of this ability, where the normal casting cost does 3 damage to target creature or player. When the kicker is paid the damage increases and can’t be prevented. A set of creatures also gained this mechanic and with non allied color kickers, each color gained the ability to deal with permanents that the color traditionally cannot deal with (for example the red creature gained the ability to deal with enchantments).

Another introduction to Magic from this block is the split cards. Split cards (like Fire/Ice or Wax/Wane) are cards that contain two different spells. These cards have two spells printed on them that cost different amounts (and colors) of mana. When casting one of these cards, you state which card you are playing and ignore the other spell on the card. These cards allowed players to have situational cards (Wax/Wane allowed for an enchantment kill as well as a creature pump for a turn) without using two cards in your deck for their purpose and thus diluting the synergy of your deck.

Standout cards in this block include the multi color counterspells of Absorb

parallel cards were introduced in the Saga block that brought more collectors to the game and allowed players to “trick out” their decks. Planeshift took this to another level as three of the rare cards had normal foil parallels and also had alternate art foil parallels as well.

back allows you to play the card from your graveyard for a cost. There are spells in the set that cost more than the original casting cost (like Chainer’s Edict) and cards that cost less to play from the graveyard (like Roar of the Wurm

costs 4 mana to play from your hand and 2 mana and 2 life to play from your graveyard.

The second mechanic that was introduced in the block is Threshold. Threshold is an ability that counts the number of cards in your graveyard. If you exceed the minimum number of cards in your graveyard, a second ability on a spell is triggered. For example Werebear

The third mechanic that was introduced in this block is madness. Madness allows a spell (creature, instant etc) to be played as a result of the card being discarded from your hand. As with kicker in the last set, each card has two casting costs. The first cost is the “normal” cost to play the spell. The second cost (in most cases) is less than the normal cost to play the spell as it is discarded. With this mechanic a set of madness enablers was introduced as you can not just discard a card at any time. Some of the standout cards in the block are madness enablers. Wild Mongrel

is a two casting cost creature that allows you to discard a card to give it +1/+1 and change its color until the end of turn. This became a great asset as you can protect your creature, thus making it great for aggressive and defensive purposes and take advantage of the madness mechanic. Standout Madness cards include the creatures Arrogant Wurm

The third mechanic that was introduced in the block is the choice cards (also known as punisher cards). The choice cards are cards that have an ability but an opponent has a choice of allowing the spell to resolve or pay a cost. Browbeat

is a red card that stated you got to draw cards unless an opponent paid the cost of 5 life.

A new set of cards was introduced in this block. They are the five wish cards that allowed you to get cards from outside the game and put them in your hand. In tournament play this meant that when you played the card you could retrieve a card from your sideboard or a card that was somehow removed from the game in your current game. Cunning Wish

block brought a tribal nature to the game. Similar to the Masque’s block, they creature type became a significant part of the creatures abilities. Cards in the set became enhanced buy the number of a creature type you controlled. Each tribe has a creature whose power and toughness are determined by the number of creatures of that type you control. An example of this is Heedless One

whose power and toughness are determined by the number of Elves you control.

A mechanic introduced in this block is morph. Creatures with the Morph ability can be put into play face down for the cost of three colorless mana. The face down creature has a power and toughness of 2 and is a colorless creature that can attack and block. A creature with a morph ability can be turned over at any time by paying the morph activation cost. Once the creature is turned all abilities and text on the creature are activated. Exalted Angel

is 4WW. You can play the Angel for 3 colorless mana and then at any time you can pay the morph cost and flip the card to change from a 2/2 creature to a 4/5 flying creature that gains you life for damage dealt. You can attack or block with the creature in “morph” position and then have combat tricks with the ability to flip the card.

The cycling mechanic came back in this block. There is a twist with the mechanic in relation to the cycling mechanic in the Saga Block. In the Saga Block all cycling costs consisted of colorless mana. In the Onslaught

for 2R you have it deal one damage to each creature and get to draw a card. One of the benefits of using the cycling is that a cycled card can not be countered. Also this block has enchantments that have triggered abilities from cycling cards. Astral Slide

is an example of this as it is an enchantment that states whenever a player cycles a card you can remove target creature from the game until the end of turn.

A new set of lands was introduced in this block. The sacrifice and search lands allow you to pay 1 life and tap and sacrifice them to search your library for one of two types of basic land. An example of this is Polluted Delta

that you can tap and sacrifice and get an island or swamp from you deck.

Storm is the next mechanic that was introduced in this block. Storm cards took a count of the number of spells you played prior to playing the spell. With the Storm count you get to put X copies of the spell on the stack where X is the number of spells you played previous to the spell. Brain Freeze

is now a part of the base set and disenchant is no longer in the base set. Also during this time and due to the sheer number of counter spells that were introduced in the Invasion block the staple card of Counterspell

Modular is another mechanic in the block. Modular creatures come into play with +1/+1 counters and when they go to the graveyard those counters can be placed on another artifact creature. Arcbound Ravager

As the Champions of Kamigawa block is not yet completed and there are many articles being published on the merits of the cards being released, I am going to stop at the Mirrodin block for this article.

Hopefully this helps put the multiple blocks of Magic in perspective for you and helps with your grasp of the game. By no means does this article go into all the details of each expansion and block, but it is for an overview perspective of the game.

Bonus Section: Since you made it this far thru the article, I will add one perspective on the original sets (Alpha Beta and Unlimited) in the list of the “Power Nine” cards. The Power Nine cards are generally considered the nine most powerful cards in the game, with an Honorable mention of a 10th card that was not in the original sets.

is a two casting cost sorcery that allows you to take an extra turn.Time Twister is a three casting cost sorcery that allows you to shuffle your hand, library and graveyard and then draw seven cardsTolarian Academy